Fodder and method of making same



ma ual-sac, 1940 Y 4 2,189,438

[ NITED STATES PATENT orrlcs Fonnsa AND METHOD or mains SAME Lynwood H.Smith, Kansas City, Mo., and Charles F. Schnabel, Kansas City, Kans.,asslgnors to American Dairies Incorporated, Kansas City, Mo., acorporation of Maryland No Drawing. Application August 9, 1937, SerialN- 158,152

1 Claim. (01. 99-4 7 Our invention relates to fodder and 'to a to a hotgas. The temperature at which this method of making the same, and moreparticucontact may be made may range from 900 F.

larlyto a fodder of greens such as grasses, leg- I to 1800 F. It appears"that the'leaf is not inumes, vegetables and the like, possessing highlured by the contact with high temperatures due food value andbiological worth. to the fact that the evaporation of water pres- 5 Thisapplication is a continuation-in-part of ent serves to keep the interiorof the leaf at 9. our co-pending application, Serial No. 48,056,temperature below which damage is done to the filed November 2, 1935.vitamins. The temperature; however, is 'sufli- It is well known thatordinary methods of ciently high to kill the bacteria on the surface oflo field curing greens, as in the curing of hay, are the leaves and todestroy enzymatic action. The 10 very destructive to carotene,chlorophyll and momentary high temperature'besides' destroyingxanthophyll, and other valuable principals conbacteria and enzymaticaction, paralyzes the tained in the fresh products which are subjectstoma-ta of the leaves which are normally in open to oxidation anddeterioration by sunlight. It position in a turgid leaf.

is also known that artificially dried hay when As pointed outhereinabove, even though a hay is first madeis higher in carotene,chlorophyll and high in vitamins and other beneficial biologicalxanthophyli, many of, the proteins, lipins and nutritive factors may beobtained by artificial valuable ingredients. dehydration, this hay willdeteriorate in its vita- Both the artificially dehydrated and field mincontent in storage.

cured hay deteriorate in. biological and food It is also important thatthe drying take place .9 value in storage. It is known, for examnle,that within a short time after harvesting. .This time the carotenecontent in artificially dried hay should be so short that the stomata ofthe leaves can be maintained if the hay is kept in cold storare stillopen. We have found in practice that age at or below the freezing pointof water. the drying should take place within an hour The cold storageof bulky products, such as deafter cutting in the field.

hydrated greens, is an expensive proceeding, and In practicing ourmethod, we harvested the the cost is so prohibitive that farmers cannotgreens and within thirty minutes to an hour employ it. At 70' F. theloss of carotene content after harvesting, subjected them to drying. Ifdein hay will average about 10% a month. sired they may be comminutedbefore drying.

Inthe instant specification we will use hay for They are dried in such amanner that a high a purposes of illustration, though it is to beundervitamin content is retained.

a stood that our invention is applicable to all types The finely divideddried hay is then intimately of dried greens suitable ior use as afodder or mixed with a condensed creamery milk or butfeed, termilkcontaining from 10% to 25% solids. If

When hay is stored at temperatures prevailing the solids are higher than25%, the higher visa in most hay barns, especially those with metalcosity prevents each particle of dried greens roofs, the hay will loseits carotene content at from being completely covered with condensed therate of about 50% a month. It will be obmilk. If the solid content isbelow 10%, the provious that good hay will become practically tein filmresulting after the mixture is desicworthless as a source of vitamin Ain a very cated will be too thin to give protection. We 0 short time.prefer to use a condensed creamery buttermilk One method of maintainingthe vitamin conhaving approximately 20% solids, as we find that tent infodder is described in our co-pending this percentage of solids will notonly cover each application. particle, but will tend to agglomerateseveral One object of our invention is to provide ansmall particles toform small masses or spheres 5 other method of providing a source offodder or which tend to retain their identity when dried. feed whichwill remain rich in vitamins though By buttermilk we mean any milkproduct stored over an extended period of time. such as churnedbuttermilk, whole milk, skim Other and further objects of our inventionmilk, whey or cream which has been soured by will appear in thefollowing description. fermentation and then partially dehydrated to o Amethod of dehydration which appears to bring it within the desired solidcontent, it being leave vitamins and biologically beneficialeleunderstood, of course, that the products may be ments present in thefeed in high quantities, is used without being fermented if partiallydehythe so-called flotation" process. This method drated to give thedesired solids content. contemplates contacting the greens momentarilyAfter the desiccated greens and the condensed s buttermilk arethoroughly mixed, the wet mixture is dehydrated. If desired, thedehydrator used for dehydrating the greens may be employed but operatedat a much lower temperature. The resulting product will be particles ofdried greens completely encased by milk proteins.

This product is then packed in barrels or sacks or other suitablecontainers, with as little attrition as possible, the object being tomaintain the protein coating over each particle of dried greens.

We have found that thus coating each particle of hay with a protectingfilm of milk protein enables the material to retain a high vitamincontent at ordinary storage temperatures. Our product loses itsnutritive value at one tenth the rate of unprotected hay stored underthe same conditions.

It will be understood, of course, that if desired, a small percentage ofan edible oil, such as corn oil, cottonseed, cocoanut or olive oil maybe homogenized with the condensed milk or buttermilk. The oil tends tomake the coating less brittle. If desired, we may add sugar, or otheredible products to make it more palatable for human consumption, to thecondensed milk or buttermilk, and have found that this likewise rendersthe coating more resistant to attrition.

It will be observed that we have accomplished the objects of ourinvention. We have provided a novel fodder or feed with a novel methodfor preserving desiccated greens in such a manner as to enable them toretain a high biological value, furnishing stock or humans with vitaminsduring winter months, keeping them in better health and aiding in growthand reproduction.

To further encourage agglomeration of many fine particles into largermasses-the proportion of fodder and milk is regulated so that the wetmixture may be pressed through perforated metal plates or sheets Justbefore drying. Shaking the agglomerations in thin layers over a smoothsurface tends to smooth and polish the surface, which further increasesthe preservative eil'ect. l

Besides preserving the fodder, the milk protein coating has otherobvious advantages. It increases the specific gravity of the fodder sothat when mixed with water, it wets and sinks immediately and the plantpigments do not dissolve and color the solvent green as is the case withuntreated fodder. This is a distinct advantage in rendering the foddermore palatable to the taste.

It will be understood that certain features and sub-combinations are ofutility and may be employed without reference to other features andsub-combinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of ourclaim. It is further obvious that various changes may be made in detailswithin the scope of our claim without departing from the spirit of ourinvention. It is, therefore, to be understood that our invention is notto be limited to the specific details shown and described.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim is:

A method of preparing a fodder including the steps of harvesting greens,comminuting the same, desiccating the comminuted greens, intimatelymixing the desiccated greens with a milk product having a solids contentfrom 10% to 25%, and dehydrating the resultant mixture.

LYNWOOD H. SMITH. CHARLES F. SCHNABEL.

